Was 2007 Law Requiring Firing of School Worker for 1976 Criminal Conviction Unconstitutionally Retroactive?
John Doe v. Mary Ronan, Cincinnati Public Schools, and Ohio Department of Education, Case no. 2009-2104 U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio ISSUE: Did 2007 state legislation that required non-licensed staff already employed by public school systems across the state to submit to a criminal background check, and required school districts to terminate any employees found to have past convictions for certain specified offenses, violate the prohibitions in the Ohio Constitution against enactment of laws that retroactively impair a vested substantive right of an individual or interfere with the obligations of a pre-existing contract? BACKGROUND: Prior to 2007, R.C. 3319.39 required that all licensed public school employees who were “responsible for the care, custody or control of a child” must submit to a criminal background check, and prohibited any person found to have a conviction for certain specified offenses from being employed in such a position unless that person could dem
